Interesting perspective, but very different from my own experience. I also started writing a couple of years ago and didn’t know what publications were at the time. I tagged my articles well, and wrote about topics that I’m a professional in.

Then people started noticing some of my articles just hours after self-publishing and I’d get multiple offers from publications to publish it under theirs. Including the Startup. These publications increased my traffic in orders of magnitude.

That doesn’t happen anymore, though; I normally have to submit my articles to them. I stick to publications within my own industry (to hit that niche audience rather than casting a wide net), and do have a favourite, but some topics or types of articles are more suitable for different publications.

If rejected by one, I don’t bother submitting to another, because I don’t like the idea of making someone my second choice. When I self-publish these, I get very (extremely) low readership. Probably a sign that the article isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.